Japan has always been a strong and loyal partner of Africa and has
remained steadfast in its support of the African cause. The Africa-Japan
Business and Investment Forum aims to help strengthen ties among
Africa-Japan business networks and to share best practices and
opportunities between Japan and African countries. The Forum is expected
to open a new chapter in the development of investment and economic
relations. It as well also aims to activate business-to-business
interactions, thereby enhancing mutual understanding and strengthening
relations between Japan and Africa.
In the last two years, Tokyo has played host to two African investment summits. The third Forum held in the Africa's capital -Addis Ababa- past three days had brought together some key actors in the Japanese and African business circles allowing ministerial interventions. The Forum mainly focused on innovative solutions to accelerate access to quality healthcare and the investment attractions of the healthcare and pharmaceutical sector in Africa. It also stressed Africa's capacity in developing medical manufacturing and improving health care provision on the continent in partnership with Japanese private investment. The Forum considered the proper use of the comparative advantage of Japan to help industrialize Africa and develop Africa's production capacity to maximize revenue. It underlined the importance of urgent reform to bring about real progress in Africa and called for the pivotal role of the private sector in developing and implementing reforms.
The Forum was a demonstration of Japan's interest to strengthen business links with Ethiopia and the whole continent. Ethiopia too values its relations with Japan greatly, and views Japan as one of its most important partners for economic cooperation. It as well cherishes the long standing relations between the two countries and their continuous warm socio-political and economic relationship. Japanese development cooperation and assistance has been instrumental in development oriented pushes in a number of sectors including industrialization, agricultural and rural development as well as human resources. Japanese investment in Ethiopia is on the increase as well. For instance, in the 2014/15 alone 34 Japanese companies had conducted a pre-investment visit to Ethiopia.
Though, Ethiopia's recent growth experience featured a chosen development path suited to its peculiar conditions, the development path combined with the practical application of policy independence, active industrial policy as well as the domestication of Kaizen philosophy along with policy learning from other East Asian countries experiences have helped the country, among others, to reduce poverty by half and improve the agriculture sector productivity. They had manged to shift the image of Ethiopia from a reference to drought and famine into a fastest growing economy with a positive prospect.
The name of Japan is synonym with quality, efficiency and organized. Using Japanese best experience Ethiopia can benefit a lot from its success stories. Also to maintain and accelerate the positive growth, the government has shown a very keen interest to engage with Japanese investors. This sentiment arises from the conviction to learn quality and improvement of production, underlining that African countries need to take advantage of learning Japanese experience beyond trading and enhancing investment ties.
Towards this end, Ethiopia is committed to meet the requirements or key enabling conditions for investment set by Japanese investors that focused on high quality infrastructure and industrial parks development also the provision of quality trained workforce. Ethiopia is also ready to further deepen its partnership with Japan in the area of climate change issues, renewable energy and other areas where Japan has accumulated century-old experiences.
If there is one thing the Japanese are known for, that's innovation. And there is plenty of it in Japan. They have perfected the art of taking something that exists and making it better. The creativity it takes to stimulate innovation goes back to the notion of collaboration that is such a deep part of Japanese culture. Ethiopia can learn a lot and adopt that in everything from our schools to our organizations and make it a standard in our culture, as the Japanese have done.
In the last two years, Tokyo has played host to two African investment summits. The third Forum held in the Africa's capital -Addis Ababa- past three days had brought together some key actors in the Japanese and African business circles allowing ministerial interventions. The Forum mainly focused on innovative solutions to accelerate access to quality healthcare and the investment attractions of the healthcare and pharmaceutical sector in Africa. It also stressed Africa's capacity in developing medical manufacturing and improving health care provision on the continent in partnership with Japanese private investment. The Forum considered the proper use of the comparative advantage of Japan to help industrialize Africa and develop Africa's production capacity to maximize revenue. It underlined the importance of urgent reform to bring about real progress in Africa and called for the pivotal role of the private sector in developing and implementing reforms.
The Forum was a demonstration of Japan's interest to strengthen business links with Ethiopia and the whole continent. Ethiopia too values its relations with Japan greatly, and views Japan as one of its most important partners for economic cooperation. It as well cherishes the long standing relations between the two countries and their continuous warm socio-political and economic relationship. Japanese development cooperation and assistance has been instrumental in development oriented pushes in a number of sectors including industrialization, agricultural and rural development as well as human resources. Japanese investment in Ethiopia is on the increase as well. For instance, in the 2014/15 alone 34 Japanese companies had conducted a pre-investment visit to Ethiopia.
Though, Ethiopia's recent growth experience featured a chosen development path suited to its peculiar conditions, the development path combined with the practical application of policy independence, active industrial policy as well as the domestication of Kaizen philosophy along with policy learning from other East Asian countries experiences have helped the country, among others, to reduce poverty by half and improve the agriculture sector productivity. They had manged to shift the image of Ethiopia from a reference to drought and famine into a fastest growing economy with a positive prospect.
The name of Japan is synonym with quality, efficiency and organized. Using Japanese best experience Ethiopia can benefit a lot from its success stories. Also to maintain and accelerate the positive growth, the government has shown a very keen interest to engage with Japanese investors. This sentiment arises from the conviction to learn quality and improvement of production, underlining that African countries need to take advantage of learning Japanese experience beyond trading and enhancing investment ties.
Towards this end, Ethiopia is committed to meet the requirements or key enabling conditions for investment set by Japanese investors that focused on high quality infrastructure and industrial parks development also the provision of quality trained workforce. Ethiopia is also ready to further deepen its partnership with Japan in the area of climate change issues, renewable energy and other areas where Japan has accumulated century-old experiences.
If there is one thing the Japanese are known for, that's innovation. And there is plenty of it in Japan. They have perfected the art of taking something that exists and making it better. The creativity it takes to stimulate innovation goes back to the notion of collaboration that is such a deep part of Japanese culture. Ethiopia can learn a lot and adopt that in everything from our schools to our organizations and make it a standard in our culture, as the Japanese have done.
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